Community Hospital opens $15 million Outpatient Centre

Following the growth and expansion of southern Lake County, Ind., Community Hospital will open a new $15 million Outpatient Centre on Monday, November 19, 2001 to increase access area residents have to physicians and medical services.

The public is invited to take its first look at the Community Hospital Outpatient Centre in St. John during an Open House and Health Fair to be held from 1-4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 18. The 69,000 square-foot Outpatient Centre on U.S. 41 immediately south of 97th Lane will offer nearly every outpatient and urgent care medical service a family may need - all at one location and all without a hospital stay.

During the public Open House, many of the Centre&#8217;s physicians will be presenting lectures on a variety of health topics: Mark Feldner, M.D., &#8220;High Blood Pressure &#8211; What You Don&#8217;t Know Can Hurt You; Pedro Bukata, M.D. &#8220;Women &#8211; Your Body and Your Health&#8221;; Alonzo Morrissey, M.D., &#8220;Improving Child Safety&#8221;; Ken Reed, D.O., &#8220;Let&#8217;s Talk Diabetes&#8221;; Mark Greenberg, M.D., &#8220;Caring for Your New Baby&#8221;. In addition to the lectures, a limited number of free cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure screenings will be offered during the Open House, as well as appointments provided for a limited number of free heel bone density screenings and $55 mammography exams.

The Outpatient Centre will serve as a satellite facility of Community Hospital&#8217;s main campus located ten miles north in Munster, Ind. This new facility will enable the hospital to better service the growing communities in southern Lake County. The Centre will also create about 75 new jobs for the community in this initial development.

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Specialists in family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics will provide urgent care, full lab and X-ray services, and testing using state-of-the-art diagnostic technology, such as MRI, CT and ultrasound. As the services of the Outpatient Centre are fully developed, specialists in cardiology, general surgery, urology, dermatology and neurology will further broaden the scope of medical services available to the local community, said Edward P. Robinson, Administrator of Community Hospital, a Community Healthcare System member.

&#8220;The construction of the new Outpatient Centre is reflective of the evolution that&#8217;s taken place in healthcare over the past 30 years,&#8221; Robinson said. &#8220;We can provide a higher level of care in the outpatient setting as medical advances enable us to detect, treat and rehabilitate many more illnesses and diseases without the cost and the disruptions of hospitalization.&#8221;

The core physicians who will treat patients in St. John will be Medical Affiliates from the Community Care Centers operated by the hospital: Pedro Bukata, M.D., Obstetrics and Gynecology; Mark Feldner, M.D., Family Practice; Mark Greenberg, M.D., Pediatrics; Manuel Luna, M.D., Obstetrics and Gynecology; Cherian Mathews, M.D., Family Practice, General Surgery; Alonzo Morrissey, M.D., Family Practice; Ken Reed, D.O., Family Practice; and Leslie Stork, M.D., Family Practice.In addition to the primary health services, the Outpatient Centre will feature a Women&#8217;s Diagnostic Center offering mammography, bone density scanning and other services, modeled after the home-like atmosphere of the hospital&#8217;s main campus in Munster. Meeting rooms are also incorporated in the new building for hosting a variety of health education and community programs. An Urgent Care Center equipped with 11 exam rooms, lab and X-ray capabilities will offer extended hours during weekday evenings, weekends and holidays to provide treatment for non-emergency illnesses and injuries. Urgent Care will be staffed by Community Care Center physicians, who are part of a physician network developed to extend access to the high-quality medical services of Community Hospital, said John Gorski, Senior Vice President of Operations for Community Healthcare System.

&#8220;The Outpatient Centre in St. John is an extension of the high quality services of Community Hospital &#8211; from the care provided by physicians to the excellence in diagnostic technology,&#8221; Gorski said.

&#8220;This is also an important link through which we can make our services as a health system more easily accessible to this growing community, &#8221; he added. Community Healthcare System is the leading medical provider in Northwest Indiana, operating several outpatient clinics, physicians offices and three non-profit hospitals: Community Hospital in Munster; St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago; and St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart.

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In addition to the Open House planned for Sunday, a dedication ceremony will be held Wednesday, Nov. 14 for town officials and area business and civic representatives. The event will be catered by Schererville&#8217;s own B.J. Comfort&#8217;s Hoosier Café.

The Outpatient Centre in St. John was built by Marshall Erdman & Associates, a full-service design and construction firm specializing in outpatient healthcare facilities. Founded in 1951, the company headquartered in Madison, Wis. has built more than 2,500 medical buildings nationwide. The construction of this facility provided for more than 250 construction jobs.